Mobile control apparatus

ABSTRACT

Vehicle maintenance-related services are provided from a server over a wide area network, such as the Internet. Under one method, a server that is accessible over the wide area network through a wireless communication link is provided. Then, in a vehicle, an apparatus is provided to collect, over a data bus in the vehicle, data relating to an operation of the vehicle. The data received from the data bus is then communicated to the server over the wireless communication link. Based on the data received at the server, the maintenance-related services is then initiated. The operation data of the vehicle can be collected from various subsystems of the vehicle, such as a brake sub-system, an engine sub-system and various sensors located at various subsystems of the vehicle. Under one mode of operation, the data collected from these subsystems are reported to the server at pre-determined time intervals. In one embodiment, the apparatus of the invention includes a positioning apparatus for determining a location of said vehicle from received ranging signals. Such signals can be received from a global position system (GPS) or a ranging system based on triangulation, such as those used in cellular telephone systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to positioning technology. In particular,the present invention relates to applications of positioning technologyto delivering relevant services to a vehicle.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

In recent years, commercial applications based on positioning systemshave been developed. These applications are based, for example, on theGlobal Position System (GPS), or a cellular telephone network (usingtriangulation method). For example, one position-based system deliveringservices over the internet is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 09/521,247 (“Copending Application”), entitled “Method and Structurefor Distribution of Travel Information Using a Network,” to Fan et al.,filed Mar. 8, 2000, which is a continuation-in-part application of U.S.Pat. No. 5,959,577, filed Aug. 28, 1997. The Copending Application andits parent application are assigned to @Road, Inc., the assignee also ofthe present invention. The disclosure of the Copending Application ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides vehicle maintenance-related services froma server over a wide area network, such as the Internet. A method of thepresent invention includes (a) providing a server accessible over thewide area network through a wireless communication link; (b) collecting,over a data bus in the vehicle, data relating to an operation of thevehicle; (c) communicating the data received from the data bus to theserver over the wireless communication link; and (d) based on the datareceived at the server, initiating the maintenance-related services.

In one embodiment, the operation data of the vehicle are collected fromvarious subsystems of the vehicle, such as a brake sub-system, an enginesub-system and various sensors located at various subsystems of thevehicle. Under one mode of operation, the data collected from thesesubsystems are reported to the server at pre-determined time intervals.In one embodiment, the apparatus of the invention includes a positioningapparatus for determining a location of said vehicle from receivedranging signals. Such signals can be received from a global positionsystem (GPS) or a ranging system based on triangulation, such as thoseused in cellular telephone systems.

According to one aspect of the present invention, applicablemaintenance-related services include scheduling the vehicle for amaintenance procedure at a service center, based on a current operatingcondition of the vehicle received from the apparatus of the presentinvention, or based on a periodic schedule. Because the position of thevehicle is provided along with the operating condition of the vehicle,the server can render a maintenance-related service that includesordering parts for delivery to the service center for use in conjunctionwith the maintenance procedure. Alternatively, based on the operationalhistory of the vehicle and the location of the vehicle, the server canrender “road side” assistance to an operator of the vehicle, or enforcea mandatory work rule (e.g., 8 hours' rest after a 12-hour work day or1200 miles).

In addition, the server can also download diagnostic commands to thedata bus to diagnose the various subsystem in operation in the vehicle,based on industry standard protocols.

In one embodiment, the wireless link couples an apparatus of the presentinvention to a wireless gateway, from which the server can be accessedover the wide area network. The wireless link can be provided, forexample, by a cellular telephone network.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a mobile controlapparatus is provided. In one embodiment, the mobile control apparatusincludes (1) a position circuit receives ranging signals over a firstwireless link from a positioning system to provide a position of themobile position apparatus, (2) a communication interface that is capableof maintaining a wireless link for communicating with a server on a widearea network; (3) a peripheral interface to a peripheral device fortransferring control information between the peripheral device and themobile control apparatus; (4) a controller for executing a program that(a) control operations of the position circuit, the communicationinterface, and the peripheral interface; and (b) transfers the positionand the control information to said server; and (5) a memory for storingthe program. In one embodiment, the position circuit can be implementedby GPS RF front-end and data processing application-specific integratedcircuits.

The present invention is better understood upon consideration of thedetailed description below and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows positioning system 100 in which the present invention isapplicable.

FIG. 2 shows one implementation of ILM 101 by circuit 200.

FIG. 3 provides system 300, which is one possible implementation of asystem that allows server 105 to provide vehicle-related services, inaccordance with the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates, schematically, a method for “just-in-time”maintenance of a vehicle, in accordance with the present invention.

In the detailed description below, to provide clarity, and to facilitatecorrespondence among the figures, like elements in the figures areprovided like reference numerals.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention provides a system and a method for deliveringservices to a vehicle or a traveler based on the vehicle or thetraveler's location determined in a positioning system. FIG. 1 showspositioning system 100 in which the present invention is applicable. Asshown in FIG. 1, positioning system 100 includes an internet locationmanager (ILM) 101, which is a mobile control device having thecapabilities of both obtaining its own position from a positioningsystem (e.g., GPS) and communicating over a computer network (e.g., theinternet) to a server providing services of the present invention. ILM101 can be provided, for example, in a vehicle. One possibleimplementation of ILM 101 is shown in FIG. 2, which is discussed infurther detail below. As shown in FIG. 1, ILM 101 interacts with a userthrough, for example, console device 102. Typically, console device 102includes a key board or a pointing device for data entry, and a displayfor output of information.

ILM 101 receives from the positioning system (e.g., GPS satellite 104)position input information, which is processed to provide ILM 101'scurrent position. In addition, ILM 101 communicates over wireless link103 (e.g., a CDPD, GSM, iDEN, CDMA or another wireless or cellulartelephone communication link) with server 105, which deliverslocation-relevant services to ILM 101 over wide area network 106 (e.g.,the internet). As shown in FIG. 1, wireless link 103 connects ILM 101with wireless communication system 106 that includes cellular telephonenetwork 107 and gateway 108. Gateway 108 is typically a switch or acomputer that couples and provides protocol conversion for data trafficbetween cellular telephone network 107 and wide area network 106. Server105 can have, for example, a hypertext “web” interface and providesaccess to a database having location-relevant information.

FIG. 2 shows one implementation of ILM 101 by circuit 200. As shown inFIG. 2, circuit 200 includes central processing unit (CPU) 201, which istypically a general-purpose microprocessor, such as a Motorola 68331microprocessor. CPU 201 is the main controller of the system. Crystaloscillator 202 provides a time reference for circuit 200. Flash memorymodule 203 and static random access memory (SRAM) 204 providenon-volatile and volatile storage for CPU 201. In this embodiment, flashmemory module 203 provides 512 K-bytes of non-volatile storage, and SRAM204 provides 128 K-bytes of storage. The non-volatile storage is usedprimary for storing the firmware of ILM 101, GPS look-up tables forpositioning information calculation, and configuration parameters, suchas device identification. SRAM 204 provides run-time storage, such aspositioning information—position, velocity and time (PVT).

Battery 205 maintains the content of SRAM 204. Real time clock (RTC) andsystem controller 206 provides a real time clock and non-volatile randomaccess memory (NVRAM) control. In addition RTC controller 206 includesan analog-to-digital (A/D) converter. In this embodiment, the A/Dconverter is used to receive ignition, temperature and GPS antenna data.RTC and system controller 206, which receives a clock signal from 32.768KHz oscillator 216, can be implemented, for example, by an integratedcircuit DS 1670E, which is available from Dallas Semiconductor.

GPS RF front-end 208 and GPS Engine 207 implement the GPS signalprocessing functions of ILM 201. In this embodiment, GPS RF front-end208 can be implemented by four VRF-2 application specific integratedcircuits (ASIC) or a VRF-12 ASIC, all of which are integrated dualconversion front end ASICs available from @Road, Inc. GPS RF ASIC 208receives L1 (1575.42 MHz) GPS signal, and provide a down-convertedbandpass 2-bit quantized signal for data processing. GPS Engine 207,which receives down-converted signals from GPS RF front-end 208 andprovides signal processing to compute PVT information for ILM 201. Inthis embodiment, GPS Engine 208 can be implemented by a VGP-12 ASICavailable from @Road, Inc. In this embodiment, GPS Engine 207 provides amemory-mapped interface to CPU 201, a GPS clock controller, GPScorrelator channels with common control, receiver gain control, andparallel and serial ports. In this embodiment, GPS Engine 207communicates with CPU 201 over a 16-bit parallel bus. One example of GPSsignal data processing is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,827, entitled“Structure of a Position Processing Apparatus,” to Fan et al., filedMar. 28, 1997, which is also assigned to @Road, Inc., the assignee alsoof this invention.

Modem 210 provides an interface to an external communication system,such as a cellular telephone network. Modem 210 allows ILM 101 tocommunicate with server 105 over the external communication system andgateway 108. In this embodiment, modem 210 can be implemented, forexample, by a Novatel NRM-6812 modem card. Modem 210 communicates withCPU 201 over input-output (I/O) bus 217. Modem 210 receives a serial bitstream from and transmit a serial bit stream to a built-in universalasynchronous receiver and transmitter (UART) in GPS Engine 207.

ILM 101 communicates with external circuits through industry standardinterfaces at one or more data port, such as data ports 212 and 213 ofcircuit 200. In one implementation, circuit 200 communicates over outputport 212 (provided as an RS-232 interface) with a multimedia outputdevice during normal operation, and a configuration tool and a debuggingtool during manufacturing and testing. Data port 213 is provided tointerface with additional external devices and system. A multimediaoutput device is capable of providing video output, audio output, orboth. In one embodiment, described in further detail below, an interfaceto an automobile industry standard bus allows ILM 101 to obtainoperating data of the vehicle relevant to vehicle-related servicesprovided by server 105. Some examples of automobile industry standardbuses include SAE 1708 bus, SAE J1939 bus, CAN bus and the IDB bus.

In addition, circuit 200 provides visual status indicators to anoperator of the vehicle using LEDs 213. Some examples of statusindicators that can be implemented by LEDs 213 include power on/off,active/inactive communication with external communication network,operative/non-operative status of the GPS system in circuit 200,active/inactive link to server 105. In this embodiment, input and outputterminals 215 provide additional means for input and output controlsignals that can be used by the firmware of ILM 101.

The firmware in ILM 101 can be loaded and updated using over-the-airprogramming (OTAP) through modem 210. OTAP can be provided usingindustry standard TFTP (“trivial file transfer protocol”). In TFTP, aTFTP file server is provided from which ILM 101 can request one or morefiles under operator control, or control by server 105. Upon receivingthe requested file, ILM 101 is reconfigured by executing a programmingfile to load the new firmware into non-volatile memory 203. Theprogramming file can be one of the files transferred under TFTP.

As mentioned above, ILM 101 can be coupled to an industry standardautomobile bus to allow vehicle-related services. FIG. 3 provides system300, which is one possible implementation of a system that allows server105 to provide vehicle-related services. As shown in FIG. 3, system 300includes ILM 101 coupled into industry standard automobile bus 310,through data port 213. Bus 310 includes bus controller 301, whichprovides general access control to bus 310. Bus 310 can be accessed by,and can provide access to, various subsystems and sensors of thevehicle. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, brake subsystem 302, enginesubsystem 303, fuel subsystem 304 and various sensors 305 (e.g., engineRPM sensor, oil pressure sensor, tire pressure sensor, battery chargestatus sensor, odometer reading, etc.). Typically, server 105 can obtainstatus information of each of subsystem 302-304 and sensors 305 throughILM 101. Alternatively, server 105 can provide through ILM 101diagnostic commands to each of subsystems 302-304 for diagnosticpurposes.

Based on a configuration such as system 300, a number of vehicle-relatedservices can be provided. One service that can be provided by server105, for example, is a “just-in-time” maintenance service, which isschematically represented by FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 4, ILM 101 can beprogrammed to report to server 105 on a periodic basis the statusinformation of, each of subsystem 302-304 and sensors 305. From thisreport, server 105 can determine the current operative condition of thevehicle and can compile vehicle operation history. At scheduledintervals, or as deemed necessary from the operative condition of thevehicle, server 105 can advise the operator of the vehicle to bring thevehicle to a service center for scheduled or unscheduled maintenance.Such maintenance service may include replacement of brake pads, fluids,tires, readjustment of engine valves etc. In one embodiment, based onthe current location of the vehicle and a database of the servicecenters available in the vicinity, server 105 can also advise theoperator of a designated service center available, based on distance,business relationship with the operator, price and other considerations.In one embodiment, where the vehicle is a member of a fleet of a largetransportation concern, server 105 is integrated with the enterpriseresource planning system of the transportation concern. In thatembodiment, server 105 can also schedule the required maintenanceprocedure with the service center in advance of the vehicle's arrival,and order any necessary parts for delivery to the service center priorto the scheduled maintenance procedure.

Because server 105 can monitor the vehicle continuously, the operator ofthe vehicle or a dispatcher can be notified immediately of any unusualoperating condition that may lead to an impending failure or emergency.Such timely information can prevents catastrophic failure and enhancessafety. In another application, fuel prices are surveyed ahead of thevehicle arriving at a service area to select the most cost efficientsupplier. Operation data across a large number of vehicles in a fleetcan be compiled for statistical analysis valuable for more accurate costand equipment lifetime analyses.

With the “just-in-time maintenance” service, highest operativeperformance and safety in the trucking concern's vehicles is achieved,and the “down time” for performing maintenance procedures are minimized.

Another service server 105 can provide based on a system such as system300, also illustrated schematically by FIG. 4, is “on-the-road”assistance to the vehicle's operator and enforcement work rules. Forexample, based on the operation history of the vehicle for a particularwork day, or the number of miles driven or the tasks completed for theday, server 105 advises the vehicle's operator that a mandatory reststop, motivated by safety concerns for example, is required. Inaddition, based on the current location of the vehicle, server 105 canguide the operator to a nearby rest facility (e.g., a motel), makereservations for a room at the rest facility and arrange for payment ofservices by the trucking company. Arrangements for other operatorconveniences, such as a meal stop, can be similarly made.

The detailed description above is provided to illustrate specificembodiments of the present invention and is not intended to be limiting.Numerous variations and modifications within the scope of the presentinvention are possible. The present invention is set forth in theaccompanying claims.

1. A mobile control apparatus, comprising: a position circuit forreceiving ranging signals over a first wireless link from a positioningsystem and for providing a position of said mobile position apparatus; acommunication interface for maintaining a wireless link forcommunicating with a server on a wide area network, said server beingintegrated with an enterprise resource planning system; a peripheralinterface to a peripheral device, said interface provided to transfercontrol information between said peripheral device and said mobilecontrol apparatus; a controller for executing a program that (1) controloperations of said position circuit, said communication interface, andsaid peripheral interface; and (2) transfers said position and saidcontrol information to said server as input to said enterprise resourceplanning system; and a memory for storing said program.
 2. A mobilecontrol apparatus as in claim 1, wherein said communication interfacecomprises a modem capable of operating in a cellular telephone system.3. A mobile control apparatus as in claim 1, wherein said positioncircuit comprises a down-converter for a global position system (GPS).4. A mobile control apparatus as in claim 1, wherein said positioncircuit determines said position based on triangulation of rangingsignals.
 5. A mobile control apparatus as in claim 1, wherein saidperipheral interface comprises an industry standard bus interface.
 6. Amobile control apparatus as in claim 1, wherein said memory comprises anon-volatile portion and a volatile portion.
 7. A mobile controlapparatus as in claim 1, wherein said position circuit comprises a radiofrequency front-end circuit and a signal processing circuit.
 8. A mobilecontrol apparatus as in claim 7, wherein said radio frequency front-endcircuit and said signal processing circuit are provided asapplication-specific integrated circuits.
 9. A mobile control apparatusas in claim 8, wherein said controller comprises a general-purposemicroprocessor.